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1) Dietary supplements, such as ginkgo, can help com pensate for normal age-related declines in memory?
False. Supplements aren't likely to improve cognitive performance in most people. The most popular "brain enhancing" supplement is the herb ginkgo biloba, which is commonly used in Europe to treat dementia.
In this country, the National Institute on Aging is funding a clinical trial of ginkgo as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. Other supplements touted for their cognitive potential include acetyl-L-carnitine, phosphatidylserine, and vinpocetine. Many products combine two or more of those substances.
But two recent scientific reviews-one on ginkgo, one on the other supplements-concluded that the studies so far were so small or poorly designed that it's impossible to know what effect, if any, the supplements have in treating dementia or preventing memory loss. Even in individual studies of ginkgo that did show a benefit, the review said the improvements were slight-even less than what you'd expect from a glucose drink or listening to a stimulating story.
"We know that simply exercising your mind-reading good books, learning new games or languages-is an excellent way to preserve mental acuity;' says Paul Gold, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of the recent ginkgo review. "It's not as easy as popping a pill, but you'll get more out of it:'
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